Battle of Balasore | ||||||||
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Part of Dano-Mughal War | ||||||||
Detailed map of Balasore and Pipeley, 1794 | ||||||||
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Belligerents | ||||||||
Danish India | Bengal Subah | British East India Dutch India | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | ||||||||
Willem Leyel Christen Clausen | Malik Beg Local nawab | Richard Hudson | ||||||
Units involved | ||||||||
Christianhavn The Bengali Prize | Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
Strength | ||||||||
5 Ships | Multiple ships 16 guns 1000 men | +13 ships 2 ships 60 men | ||||||
Casualties and losses | ||||||||
Unknown | 1 ship 8 elephants | 9-12 ships |
The Battle of Balasore (Danish; Slaget ved Balasore) was an engagement between Bengali and English ships against Danish ships at Balasore. When the English failed to persuade the Danes, the Bengalis started attacking the English vessel, yet the English were rescued by the Dutch.
In 1643 Willem Leyel deposed governor Bernt Pessart as overhoved of Danish India. [1] In the preceding year Pessart had declared war on the Mughal Empire. [2] Leyel continued the privateering war against the Mughals as a source of revenue and income. [3]
In 1647 the privateer war still waged, and in December that year a noticeable incident was recorded by the English at Balasore. [3]
The English at Balasore was given a good reception at Balasore. [4] Yet when a Danish fleet of five ships, including Christianshavn and The Bengali Prize, appeared things suddenly started to change. [4] The Danes had come to settle their long standing grievances and debts against the Mughal authorities by force. [5]
Danes seized one of the Moorish ships with eight elephants at the habour. [6] At the request of Governor Malik Beg, the English twice attmepted to persuade the escaping Danish fleet. [5] When this proved a failure for the English, the Mughals informed the English that they now would have to compensate the damage made by the Danes since both Europeans were Christians. [5] [6]
The English then tried to escape the habour, yet were blockaded by the Mughals, who placed guns at strategic points and summoned a large force of soldiers. [6] Meanwhile, a letter from the Nawab arrived with a captain and 500 cavalry, demanding to meet the English outside of the town. [7] The English factors refused the demands of the letter. [8]
When the Nawab heard the English rejection he called c 1.000 soldiers and placed nine guns in strategic positions around the habour. [8] [6] The following day additional guns were planted. [8] The English could not leave the habour and the Budhabalanga River because of a blockade. [8] [6] The Bengalis had already seized 3-4 English boats and 6-8 smaller vessels in the river. [8]
Things escalated when the Bengalis fired at the British warehouse in Balasore. [8] The English took position with their guns and an insuing confrontation lasted four hours. [8]
Because of the blockade, the Dutch East India Company's business was stopped, and was thus fored to join the English course. [8] The Dutch send 60 men and 2 ships to Balasore, which unprovoked the attack on the English. [8]
At the time of the Battle the Danes had presumably already managed to bring tehmselves and their prize to safety. The war between the Danes and Mughals in Bengal hindered the prospects of trade of the English and Dutch at Balasore. [5]
The Danish East India Company refers to two separate Danish-Norwegian chartered companies. The first company operated between 1616 and 1650. The second company existed between 1670 and 1729, however, in 1730 it was re-founded as the Asiatic Company.
Danish India was the name given to the colonies of Denmark in the Indian subcontinent, forming part of the Danish overseas colonies. Denmark–Norway held colonial possessions in India for more than 200 years, including the town of Tharangambadi in present-day Tamil Nadu state, Serampore in present-day West Bengal, and the Nicobar Islands, currently part of India's union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Danish and Norwegian presence in India was of little significance to the major European powers as they presented neither a military nor a mercantile threat. Dano-Norwegian ventures in India, as elsewhere, were typically undercapitalized and never able to dominate or monopolize trade routes in the same way that British, French, and Portuguese ventures could.
The Dano-Mughal War, formally Danish East India Company's War against the Mughal Empire, was a colonial and maritime conflict between the Mughal Empire and the Danish East India Company over trade commerce in the Bay of Bengal. Lasting from 1642 to 1698, the conflict has also been referred to by historians as the Dano-Bengali Thirty Years' War
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The Siege of Dansborg alternatively the Siege of Fort Dansborg sometimes also referred to as Willem Leyel's siege of Dansborg, was a siege initiated by traveler and seafarer, Willem Leyel, against the men loyal to governor Bernt Pessart. The siege was concluded after the men at Dansborg opened the gates for Willem Leyel, surrendered, and accepted Leyel as the new governor.
The Siege of Dansborg or the Siege of Fort Dansborg, was a siege of the newly finished Danish fort of Dansborg in Trangebar in 1624. The siege was initiated by the nayak of Thanjavur, Raghunatha, because of the Danish rejection of the demands from the nayak. The Siege, laid by general Calicut, was abandoned after the arrival of Danish reinforcements from sea. The event is mostly described by Icelander, Jón Ólafsson, in his work The Life of the Icelander Jón Ólafsson, Traveller to India.
A Siege of Dansborg may refer to:
Roland Crappé's raids on Portuguese colonies refers to a series of raids by Dutchman in Danish service, Roland Crappé, on Portuguese Ceylon and India. The raids were partially unsuccessful, in that Crappé's ship, Øresund, caught fire and sank.
The Skirmish at the Strait of Malacca was a skirmish between the claimed governor of Tranquebar, Bernt Pessart, and the local authorities of Dutch Malacca. The confrontation led to the imprisonment or death of all of Pessart's crew and the confiscation of the vessel, Dend gode Haab. Although Pessart and his crew would later be released and cooperate with the Dutch to spy on the Spanish in Manila.
The Ambush near the Bay of Manila, alternatively the Death of Bernt Pessart, was an ambush by the Indigenous peoples of the Philippines, against a combined Dano-Dutch espionaging expeditionary force in 1645. The ambush led to the death of former governor and president of Danish India, Bernt Pessart.
The Sieges of Tranquebar or the War between Tranquebar and Thanjavur refers to the warfare between the Thanjavur Nayak kingdom and Danish Tranquebar between 1655 – 1669. The Thanjavurian sieges were repelled, mainly due to the new fortifications being built around Tranquebar, and a peace agreement was issued in 1669.
The Conflict between William Leyel and Bernt Pessart refers to the tensions and minor civil war between Willem Leyel and Bernt Pessart over the governorship of Tranquebar and the Danish East India Company. The conflict led to the escape of Bernt Pessart, and the command at Tranquebar accepted Willem Leyel as governor of Danish India.
The Capture of St. Michael or the Seizure of St. Michael, was a Danish seizure of a Bengali ship in the Bay of Bengal. The Danes captured the Bengali ship and the vessel was subsequently incorporated into the Danish Navy given the name St. Michael.
The Attack in Hooghly was a Danish attack on two Bengali ships during the Dano-Mughal War in 1671. The Danes succeeded in blowing up the Bengali ships, and violence continued off the coasts of Kalingapatnam and Balasore.
Roland Crappé or Roelant Crappé was a Dutch colonial official serving the Dutch and Danish East India Company. He became director general of the Ceylonese department of the Danish East India Company in 1618 and became commander in chief and governor of Tranquebar upon his seventh arrival in the Indies in 1624. During his leadership, new factories and offices were established and Danish trade went exceptionally well. He died in 1644 only a few years after his homecoming to Denmark.
Bernt Pessart, Berndt Pessart or Berent Pessart was a Dutch overhoved and self-proclaimed President of Danish India from 1636 to 1643. In his earlier years, he would serve the Dutch East India Company in Bantam, and in September 1636 he would land in Danish Tranquebar on the St. Jacob. Here he would serve the Danish East India Company until his deposure in 1643, after which he again would serve the Dutch East India Company by espionage on the Spanish Philippines. He would die in June 1645 by an ambush of local natives near Manila.